64gb RAM overkill?

[MasteredDelta]

Would 64gb (4 x 16gb) be overkill? All I'd be doing is streaming and gaming?

[Serju Iurcu]

2 minutes ago, MasteredDelta said:

Would 64gb (4 x 16gb) be overkill? All I'd be doing is streaming and gaming?

i think that you will be fine with 32gb

[aDoomGuy]

A bit, yes lol. 2x16 should be good.

[MasteredDelta]

Just now, aDoomGuy said:

A bit, yes lol. 2x16 should be good.

Is 4 x 8gb better than 2 x 16gb?

 

[aDoomGuy]

1 minute ago, MasteredDelta said:

Is 4 x 8gb better than 2 x 16gb?

 

Not really. 2x16 is easier to run at advertised speed with XMP/DOCP than 4x8. Also if you plan to run at advertised speed you should get a kit. 2x16 kits are easier and I think cheaper than 4x8 kits. If you don't plan on running at advertised speed, it makes little difference I guess as long as the sticks are the (exact) same make/model/speed/timings.

[MasteredDelta]

1 minute ago, aDoomGuy said:

Not really. 2x16 is easier to run at advertised speed with XMP/DOCP than 4x8. Also if you plan to run at advertised speed you should get a kit. 2x16 kits are easier and I think cheaper than 4x8 kits. If you don't plan on running at advertised speed, it makes little difference I guess as long as the sticks are the (exact) same make/model/speed/timings.

I only said that because all my friends tell me "Don't get 2 sticks 16gb (2 x 8), get 4 sticks of 32gb (4 x 8)" because I only needed 16gb but they said filling the slots is better

than just having 2 of them.

[MasteredDelta]

6 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Not really. 2x16 is easier to run at advertised speed with XMP/DOCP than 4x8. Also if you plan to run at advertised speed you should get a kit. 2x16 kits are easier and I think cheaper than 4x8 kits. If you don't plan on running at advertised speed, it makes little difference I guess as long as the sticks are the (exact) same make/model/speed/timings.

Well sometimes 4x8 kits are cheaper than 4x8, or 2 kits of 2x8.

[aDoomGuy]

1 minute ago, MasteredDelta said:

I only said that because all my friends tell me "Don't get 2 sticks 16gb (2 x 8), get 4 sticks of 32gb (4 x 8)" because I only needed 16gb but they said filling the slots is better

than just having 2 of them.

Nah, I assume they think your PC will run in quad channel which it most likely wont. If it would you would have 8 DIMM slots. So no benefit of populating all 4 slots just for the heck of it, other than making it harder for the memory controller to do it's job. Better off using two slots and enabling XMP/DOCP.

[MasteredDelta]

2 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Nah, I assume they think your PC will run in quad channel which it most likely wont. If it would you would have 8 DIMM slots. So no benefit of populating all 4 slots just for the heck of it, other than making it harder for the memory controller to do it's job. Better off using two slots and enabling XMP/DOCP.

What makes it run quad channel, besides having 8 slots, a setting in the BIOS, or just up to motherboard/CPU?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 minute ago, MasteredDelta said:

What makes it run quad channel, besides having 8 slots, a setting in the BIOS, or just up to motherboard/CPU?

Quad channel is only for servers or hedt like threadripper, mainstream is only dual channel

[aDoomGuy]

1 minute ago, MasteredDelta said:

What makes it run quad channel, besides having 8 slots, a setting in the BIOS, or just up to motherboard/CPU?

Server and workstation processors like Xeon and Threadripper.

[MasteredDelta]

Just now, aDoomGuy said:

Server and workstation processors like Xeon and Threadripper.

Lemme guess, because the motherboards have 8 DIMM slots.

[aDoomGuy]

Just now, MasteredDelta said:

Lemme guess, because the motherboards have 8 DIMM slots.

No, because the CPU and motherboard support it. Thus having 8 DIMMs.

 

Spoiler

 

[Monkey Dust]

As someone who recently put 64gb in his PC, on the grounds that modded Cities Skylines use a lot, I can confirm I wasted my money.32gb would have allowed plenty of headroom.

[dilpickle]

1 hour ago, MasteredDelta said:

I only said that because all my friends tell me "Don't get 2 sticks 16gb (2 x 8), get 4 sticks of 32gb (4 x 8)" because I only needed 16gb but they said filling the slots is better

than just having 2 of them.

That is absolutely wrong. 2 sticks are always better.

 

Here's just one recent proof of this:

 

 

[YoungBlade]

5 minutes ago, dilpickle said:

That is absolutely wrong. 2 sticks are always better.

 

Here's just one recent proof of this:

 

 

No, 2 sticks is not always better. 4 sticks is better if you can get it to run at the rated speeds. If you can only get 2 sticks to run XMP, but 4 sticks can't, then obviously 2 sticks is better, but if you can get 4 sticks to run XMP, that guarantees at least dual-rank operation, which is faster in most situations.

 

 

[Chris Pratt]

2 hours ago, MasteredDelta said:

I only said that because all my friends tell me "Don't get 2 sticks 16gb (2 x 8), get 4 sticks of 32gb (4 x 8)" because I only needed 16gb but they said filling the slots is better

than just having 2 of them.

That's categorically wrong. Filling the slots is not better. The optimal number of sticks is equal to the number of channels, i.e. two here.

[Chris Pratt]

55 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

but if you can get 4 sticks to run XMP, that guarantees at least dual-rank operation, which is faster in most situations.

This is incorrect. It guarantees at least four ranks, which is considered to be optimal. Single/dual rank is a function of the stick of RAM, not something that's activated by having a certain number of sticks. If you have single rank RAM, then, yes, four sticks may have performance benefits, but two dual rank sticks will work just as well. If the RAM is dual rank, then having four of them would actually not be good, since you'd have 8 total ranks, and the maximum amount of stress on the IMC.

[YoungBlade]

3 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

This is incorrect. It guarantees at least four ranks, which is considered to be optimal. Single/dual rank is a function of the stick of RAM, not something that's activated by having a certain number of sticks. If you have single rank RAM, then, yes, four sticks may have performance benefits, but two dual rank sticks will work just as well. If the RAM is dual rank, then having four of them would actually not be good, since you'd have 8 total ranks, and the maximum amount of stress on the IMC.

We're talking about 8GB sticks. There are no dual rank 8GB sticks.

[Chris Pratt]

2 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

We're talking about 8GB sticks. There are no dual rank 8GB sticks.

I realize that, but what you said wasn't specific to 8GB sticks only. The OP needs to understand that it's not just about having four sticks, but four ranks, however you get there.